Why I’m Backing the #iwantmyfizz Eurovision social media Campaign

Every now and again, an issue comes up that really get’s you motivated to call for change. When you’ve worked with your favourite TV show for half your life and it’s given you a life-time of fun following your favourite band, and that band isn’t invited to the show’s birthday party, it’s time to say something. Bucks Fizz have every right to be invited to the Eurovision Song Contest 60th anniversary show “Eurovision’s Greatest Hits” – it’s simply unjust that they are not invited. Bucks Fizz ARE one of Eurovision’s Greatest Hits.

Last night the twitter hashtag #iwantmyfizz began trending on twitter as Bucks Fizz fans and Eurovision Song Contest fans united to call on the BBC and EBU to make right their failure to invite Bucks Fizz to perform at the Eurovision’s Greatest Hits Show. It’s something I started campaigning for before I’d even thought about it. Out went the tweets, people got in touch and before I knew it, an ‘IWantMyFizz’ Facebook Page had been created.

Bucks Fizz have helped the BBC host a Eurovision Song Contest, performed countless times on their Top of the Pops show and Cheryl Baker has given years of service to the Corporation as a television presenter. Anything other than an invitation would be a slap in the face to a band that the Eurovision Song Contest launched to superstardom. A near-fatal coach crash in 1984 and length legal battles have not stopped Bucks Fizz from performing and they have a national tour confirmed for later in 2015. The Eurovision Greatest Hits organisers are missing a top trump card if they don’t invite Bucks Fizz to perform.

Bucks Fizz encapsulate everything we love the Eurovision Song Contest for. Making Your Mind Up is timeless, fun, nostalgic, a little bit magical and very much loved by the audience for the television show. The band are loveable, a little bit cheeky, and grow stronger with age – what more of a perfect representation of the Eurovision Song Contest could you find as ambassador’s for Eurovision.

When Johnny Logan (1980) and Nicole (1982) are invited to perform their middle-of-the-road easy listening winners, why on earth are the BBC and EBU not inviting the inbetweeners Bucks Fizz with their toe-tapping, up-tempo all time Eurovision classic “Making Your Mind Up” to make a hat trick of Eurovision winners from over 30 years ago? Their 1981 win spawned a global hit and a string of round-the-world hits.

Seeing Bucks Fizz on stage in front of a United Kingdom audience, starved of a Eurovision Song Contest event on home turn since Birmingham 1998, will bring the roof down at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo in London at the end of March. It seems ridiculous that with a total of 20 top two finishes, only one United Kingdom act have been invited to the show which will have a predominantly British audience and one of it’s largest television viewing audiences from the UK too. Add to this that there are two Danish acts performing to represent a population smaller than the host city for the event and the second French artist on the line-up for Eurovision’s Greatest Hits only managed 4th place.

I’ve already written extensively for Metro.co.uk and escinsight that Bucks Fizz should be on stage as an expert Eurovision pundit, but what occurred to me tonight is that as a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest for over 30 years, I really really want to see Bucks Fizz performing at the 60th anniversary Eurovision’s Greatest Hits concert.

[…] a campaign to put Bucks Fizz (or three of the original four band members) on stage at the Eurovision S… is gathering momentum. The campaign was started by fans tweeting #iwantmyfizz on social media and […]